The newspaper columnist who suggested male obstetricians and gynaecologists “hate women” and “like to see them in pain” is likely to be investigated by the Press Complaints Council.

Under a headline ‘Is it really a job for a man?’, journalist Nikki Gemmell questioned the motives of male obstetricians and gynaecologists, referring to two high-profile abuse cases: the harms inflicted by disgraced obstetrician Graeme Reeves, dubbed ‘the Butcher of Bega’, and Dr Emil Gayed, who was recently accused of needlessly removing women’s reproductive organs.

“Of course that’s two bad apples out of the hundreds of honourable males practising but the question of motivation is intriguing; we women do wonder,” she wrote.

The columnist, writing in the The Australian newspaper on Saturday, also listed anecdotes of women made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe by male doctors and quoted her friends describing their obstetricians and gynaecologists as “patronising” and “voyeuristic”.